Newsletter

Odds and Ends with a bit of Politic.

Risen's Petition Denied

James Risen is a New York Times reporter, but he's not in trouble with the Department of Justice for anything he wrote there, but for a 2006 publication titled "State of War".

Supposedly Risen had a CIA contact help him with a chapter in the book and the Fourth Circuit decided back in 2013 that he, under subpoena must divulge his source.

In a petition to our US Supreme Court, Risen submitted the following concerns:

(1) Whether journalists have a qualified First Amendment privilege when subpoenaed to reveal the identity of confidential sources in a federal criminal trial; and (2) whether a federal common law privilege should be recognized under Federal Rule of Evidence 501 to provide protection to journalists who are subpoenaed to reveal the identity of their confidential sources in a federal criminal trial.

His petition to our US Supreme Court was denied on June 2nd of this year.

From The Washington Post, an attorney for Risen said that the issue now reverts to prosecutors, who must decide whether they want to push the issue further.

“The ball is now in the government’s court,” Joel Kurtzberg told the Associated Press. “It can elect to proceed in the Sterling trial without Jim’s testimony if it wants to. If they insist on his testimony and Jim refuses to testify, the court will need to have a hearing to determine if Jim is in contempt and, if so, what the consequence of that will be.”

According to sources however, Eric Holder has declared, “As long as I’m attorney general, no reporter will go to jail for doing his job.”

I got an email from Jim last night and he truly feels that the government's attacks on the First Amendment and the freedom of the press are among the most dangerous trends in our society. Considering the theft of phone records from the Associated Press, I agree with him.

If you feel that the Department of Justice should back off of our press, please contact the Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line at 1-202-353-1555 and let them know your opinion. Thank you.